Film Blog Group Hug: Oh, the Horror!

When the Cinemasters told me it was my turn to do a Film Blog Group Hug, I knew it was time for some of the horror-heads to get a little extra time in the spotlight. Of all the most popular movie genres, few seem to inspire as many blogs, websites, fansites and message fora as Horror ... but it takes a helluva lot more than a creepy background and an affection for Fred Krueger to impress me. So to those blogs/writers who are listed below, I say thanks for maintaining an air of creativity, intelligence and passion for an oft-maligned genre. Lord knows horror could stand to get a little more respect.

It's pretty tough to come up with five or six movie titles that I've never even heard of, but the crew over at Twitch does it at least three times a week. Showing a devotion to genre flicks of all shapes and sizes (not to mention nationalities) that borders on obsessive (which is meant as a compliment), Twitch is where you go when you need some information on that new zombie flick from North Korea, or that sci-fi soft-porn flick from the southern coast of France. And yes, they show love to the English-speaking genre fare, too. Plus, and this is a big one for me, those Twitch guys really know how to write, as evidenced by this excellent feature entitled The Five Films That Made Me Love Movie Gore.

HorrorsNotDead.com is a one-man blog that's run by one of Cinematical's regular readers/commenters, Peter Hall (which is how I came across his bloggo in the first place). Full of wonderfully opinionated reviews, helpful DVD buying guides, and tons of random news updates, HND is a best-scenario example of what happens when one articulate horror geek decides to kick-start his own blog. And best of all, Pete's no fawning fanboy who blindly adores every piece of gore he sees. That kind of stuff gets real old real fast, and he avoids it with an impressive consistency. Check out Hall's recent reviews of Evil Aliens (Brit indie), Hollow Man 2 (DTV sequel), Monster House (big-budget cartoon) and Strange Sunset (grass-roots mega-indie) to get a taste of the guy's admirably eclectic perspectives.

Last but in no way least is the aptly-titled The Horror Blog, which not only offers tons of nifty updates from the genre world, but also brings a lot of horror-lovin' bloggers together for a regular feature called Horror Roundtable. Equal parts news, reviews and opinion, THB is a site I just recently chanced upon while doing a little extra research for this Group Hug ... and suffice to say it's earned a prime spot in my favorites file.

Note: If your favorite horror-type blog was not mentioned yet, don't worry. I have a bunch of others that are worthy of some attention, and I'm saving them for my future release, Group Hug Part 2: The Huggening. But if you have a blog you want to hype, please leave me a link in the comments section. Also, keep in mind that I have a pretty narrow view of what a "blog" actually is, which is why I didn't feel the need to throw any extra love towards websites like Fangoria, Bloody-Disgusting, Dread Central, Horror.com, Slasherpool, Monsters at Play, Creature Corner, UHM or the underrated Horror-Movies.ca. If you're a horror freak and you don't already have these sites bookmarked, I suspect you might need a refresher course on how your browser's bookmarks actually work.